


To Tell The Truth

by NeverComingHome



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-31
Updated: 2017-06-01
Packaged: 2018-11-07 04:48:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11051655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeverComingHome/pseuds/NeverComingHome
Summary: Altered Universe of season two where Zoom is defeated, but the Wells stick around and Barry doesn't create Flashpoint.The name of their fated is inscribed on their backs. Cisco discovered it too early and Harry discovered it too late.





	1. Chapter 1

 

 

On their first date Tess told him that her Fated died when she was in middle school. Harry had always took it as a sign of free will that each person had to choose to look behind them to know the truth. When he kissed her his heart pounded faster, his fingers tingled, his soul lifted and he knew it was love. As long he never looked he could go his whole life content not knowing it could be any other way.That was the problem with people- everyone wanted evolution, but no one wanted to evolve. With Tess he was rising above primordial urges and choosing to be something different. Better.

“Aren’t you even a little curious?” Tess had asked him once.

“Destiny doesn’t shape me, I shape it.”

When she died he fell face first into his desire to change things he perceived to be broken, sticking his toe in Godhood and creating a city of people more primal than the rest. One night after the explosion he came out of the shower trying to rub out the knots of tension in his neck. His fingers drifted across the raised skin of an F on his back and he paused. He’d pushed against the natural order and the natural order had pushed back. Was there a point in continuing to fight it? He felt the next letter and then the next until his eyes lighted on a photo of Tess and he dropped his arm to his side. By morning he’d completely forgotten the impulse.

* * *

 

When Harry met Cisco something in him uncurled in immediate comfort. The sensation was so alien and unwanted he shoved it down as deep as it could go and regarded Cisco with hard nosed suspicion.

It took a couple months before he accepted that there was nothing ulterior in Cisco’s motives to learn from him and eventually they settled into a routine, yet inexplicably tense, working relationship. With Jesse under Barry’s tutelage and Caitlin taking a year off to recover from the kidnapping Harry finds himself elbow to elbow with Cisco on their latest project- a bot powered by the excess energy Barry let off while harnessing the speed-force. Barry was all sorts of reluctant, but Cisco assured him it wasn’t meant as a replacement, but a sidekick. A speedster briefcase equipped with a nice array of gadgets to lighten the demands of his suit.

“We need a more complex AI,” Harry groused before ripping up drafts Cisco had written crib notes on.

Cisco scrambled for the scraps. “I’m not trying to send my bro out there with a HAL 9000. Why don’t you admit I’m better at GPS syncing than you and let me take over?”

“ **I’m sorry, Cisco, I’m afraid I can’t do that**.”

Cisco rolled his eyes and began piecing the notes together. “Okay you’re way too good at that voice for it to not be creepy.”

Harry defiantly crossed behind the desk to stand beside Cisco. “ **I am by any practical definition of the words foolproof and incapable of error**.”

Cisco felt a psychic tug and wondered if somewhere a Wells had met their Ramon. “Now you’re straight up butchering the lines. Seriously, not funny.”

Harry placed a steadying hand on Cisco’s shoulder so he could repeat the monotone lines directly into his ear. “ **I can see you're really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over**.”

Cisco’s skin went from mildly warm to uncomfortably hot and he abandoned the drafts, muttering beneath his breath about personal space as he stalked off while Harry called after him that it was only a joke.

* * *

 

The first run of the bot (christened Lightning Bug or Bug for short) resulted in its core overheating, setting Barry on fire while the bank robbers laughed and watched the Flash run in tight circles to extinguish the flame like a dog chasing its tail until Jesse showed up to assist.

“Come on, guys, why does this keep happening?”

Harry didn’t look away from his laptop screen. “I believe Cisco is in charge of core mechanics.”

“It has to be the tracking system.”

“I never had any problems with it on my Earth.”

Cisco snapped his fingers. “Your Earth. That’s it!”

“...satellites?”

“Satellites!”

They explained how their Earths made the same discoveries, which didn’t necessarily mean they used the same methods of discovery. The satellites on Earth 2 used different materials than their Earth so the hardware of Harry’s device was shorting out upon interaction.

“Alright,” Barry acknowledged, “how do we figure out what’s going to explode and what isn’t?”

“Trial and error,” Harry supplied, already making a list, “preferably near a large-ish body of water.”

“Ten different Bugs running on ten different cores. We power them up until one finds its way home. Home being you.”

“And what are the chances it finds me _then_  explodes?”

“Seventy nine point nine nine percent,” Harry answered before Cisco could cut him off.

Jesse sped in with the still smoking bot and Barry gingerly took it from her. “We’re going on a lake trip.”

 

* * *

 

Lightning Bug number three made its way safely to Barry, leaving them with an uncalled for, but welcome break. Barry sped back to the city for the rest of the team to enjoy as well, but Harry and Joe remained on the beach to work while the others stripped down and took to the water. Harry was on the verge of giving into Jesse’s pleas for him to put down the bot when Cisco waded out to collapse on the towel between him and Joe, still wearing his shirt. It was odd given that Barry and Wally had all too promptly exchanged their suits for swimming trunks. He was on the verge of commenting when Cisco turned onto his stomach and Harry saw the outline of his name through the damp white cloth.

Bile rose in his throat and he flashed back to their first meeting, the calm that had come over him despite the pain he’d been carrying for his kidnapped daughter. After what appeared to be only a few seconds of rest Iris shouted for Cisco to ride the waves Barry was creating in the still waters. Joe had put down his phone to watch Harry watch Cisco.

“He doesn’t like to talk about it.”

“What happened?”

“Wells, the other one, let him think he was his Fated. Nobody knows why he couldn’t feel the death psychically, but it might’ve been complicated by his powers. You want my opinion he lucked out. You should know, with Tess and all, it’s the worst feeling in the world. At least the kid didn’t suffer.”

Harry reached for a water bottle and took a long swallow before grabbing the bot and asking Joe to tell the others he was heading back to the city to run follow up tests. In truth he found the nearest pit-stop, took off his shirt and traced the remaining letters on his back, slumping against the door when he’d finished.

Francisco Ramon.

 

* * *

 

There was no un-ringing a bell. In the days following the lake trip Harry mulled over his options. If Eobard wasn’t the right Wells who was to say that Harry was either? And if he was the right Wells and Cisco was the right Francisco did that make it any healthier? Not only would he have to contend with the memory of EoWells, but he’d have to tell Jesse that he’d been lying about her mother being his soulmate for her entire life. Their relationship was finally on the mend and he wasn’t sure if it could take another blow so soon.

Bonding was the only way to know for sure and if it didn’t work Cisco would have to suffer a second failed attempt at love. Harry made his choice.


	2. Chapter 2

 

 

When Cisco was four he nearly fell down the stairs trying to gauge the right distance from the mirror at the top of the staircase to look at the letters he’d discovered on his back. When he was older he was taught how you could tell a lot about the type of bond a person would form by how and when they discovered their Fated’s name. The desire and lengths one went through to see the name would translate into the intensity and devotion put towards finding the person.

His Fated was Harrison Wells. It didn’t seem fair to anyone else in the universe. Everyone knew Fated’s stuck in the awkward position of being emotionally bound to someone they had absolutely nothing in common with. It was referred to (tongue in cheek) as “bedroom bonds” all lust and love without depth and fondness. Harrison was not just everything Cisco wanted in a person, but everything he strove to recreate in himself.

He was determined not to blow it, but instead of the introduction he’d painstakingly edited off and on for years what came out was,

“I have your name on my skin.” His head cocked to the side and he held up a hand, “Okay, not in a creepy stalker way, in a...gay way.” He balled up a fist to his mouth, but it didn’t stifle his rambling. “Oh my god, I didn’t mean to say that. Listen. Let’s start over. I’m Francisco Ramon, you’re my hero, I love you. Please don’t call security.”

Wells had stood up from his desk with a smile playing on his lips. “You are exactly what I expected.” He kissed him. 

* * *

 

When Cisco met Harry he felt the bond tug in the same way it had since he let the multiverse flood into him. Versions of himself were Fated to enough Harrison Wells for it to move through him like dull echoes of the real thing, but never once lingering. Eobard had worn a device which siphoned the energy from the strongest bond and asked to hold off on consummating their relationship until their work was complete so as not distract from what needed to be done. The real reason was so that Cisco wouldn’t discover that Eobard had stolen the life and identity of his real Fated, but at the time Cisco had been more than willing to prove his patience.

Being around Harry hurt because it didn’t hurt. The bond felt exactly the way it did around Eobard and it took all his effort not to be the boy who risked his life for a glimpse of love and tumble heart first into Harry’s life. Harry’s fated had been Tess, after years of echoes Cisco didn’t want to waste his time trying to capture a feeling that died along with the Wells Eobard had killed. The best he could hope for was to love vicariously through his doppelgangers and find someone in a similar position to himself.

* * *

 

Sometimes Cisco would slip up. Caitlin was his best friend, but even they took breaks from each other to keep from going stir crazy during projects. With Harry the lack of friction was almost worse than if they were snapping at each other continuously. It made it harder to see him as a stranger wearing the face of his soulmate.

“You are a genius.”

Cisco watched Lightning Bug retract from its shield state after standing up to the equivalent of an elephant stampede of pressure. “You say that like it's a surprise.”

“Only because you are full of them, my boy. Show me again how you found the space.”

He tapped a few buttons and the inner workings of the bug were projected in a circle around them to walk through.

“I took Palmer’s latest improvements to the atom suit and voila! Pocket Tardis. We can pack at least two dozen options in here without breaking a sweat.”

He stood on his tiptoes in an attempt to swipe at a panel, but it was just out of reach. Harry grabbed his hand out of the way and gestured the panel closer. He didn’t seem to realize that he was still holding onto Cisco while he showed him how they could further expand the armory. His skin was cool, thumb absently rubbing over the muscles in Cisco’s wrist as he spoke. Cisco felt an echo of a bond, but it wasn’t like the others. It felt like a barrier that he needed to push through, something flimsy he could almost touch. He looked at Harry’s mouth and thought of how it might feel on his, pushing and seeking out more from him. He would’ve given it to him in that moment, all that he wanted Harry could’ve taken and yet all he did was stand there, immune to the effect he was having on Cisco.

Harry finished, looking away from the hologram. “Do you agree?”

“Yes.”

“Mm, what changed your mind?”

“About what?” Harry started to reply then looked down. Their fingers were interlaced and Cisco was staring at him like he was the last man on Earth. He pulled away and there was a touch of resistance but ultimately Cisco let him. Harry closed the projector and told Cisco to take the day off. They couldn’t do anything until they compared the new Bug with the one Barry was currently trying out anyway.

* * *

 

There was a solution. A way that Cisco could make himself invulnerable to the tricks his mind was playing on him. If he found another Wells and bonded with them he could at the very least stop the echoes from the others. He’d have to deal with the soul crushing hollowness that accompanied separation, but a night of agony was better than a lifetime of small tortures.

He found a Harrison Wells whose Francisco had become a Reverb instead of a Vibe and gone down a road his Fated refused to follow.

“You know what will happen when you leave, don’t you?” This Harrison whispered, already pushing up Cisco’s shirt.

“I know.”

“You’re sure your Fated is dead? If he’s alive he’ll suffer.” He kissed Cisco only perfunctorily before flipping him over onto the work bench. “He'll enter the bond alone, aching for something he can't explain."

“Stop. Talking.”

The universe exploded in his chest when Harrison entered him, Cisco felt as if he was everywhere all at once, the bond stimulating parts of his brain that controlled psychic and emotional connection. He felt the other bonds flow out of him in a rush, replaced by one single thread tying him to the Harrison who was kissing the name on his skin as he continued to move in and out. The emotions were off though, instead of the lust and twinge of sadness he knew that this Harrison must’ve felt there was only pure joy and relief. When it was over the joy faded into confusion despite the cold expression on Harrison’s face as he pulled up his pants and left the room without a word.

When Cisco made it back to his Earth he decided to preempt the pain with enough alcohol to send him straight to sleep.

* * *

 

Across town Harry rubbed his eyes, fumbling into the bathroom to splash water on his face then run his mouth beneath the tap. His dreams had been vivid to say the least. He’d been in a room that vaguely resembled star labs, but darker and cluttered with lack of upkeep. In the dream he and Cisco were having sex, but even though he could see himself bending Cisco over the sensations he had were that of being on the bottom. He’d felt turned on, resolved and a hint of pining. It was all backwards and messy.

He stared at his reflection, seeing Cisco’s face overlapping with his own in a persistent flicker as if he were still dreaming. The name on his back throbbed like a wound.

“Dad?” He looked away from the mirror to see Jesse gripping the frame of the door. “I heard you cry out in your sleep.”

He straightened up, making sure the mirror didn’t reflect Cisco’s name on his back.

“It must’ve been the wind. Go back to bed, sweetheart.”

“You sure you’re okay?”

“Yes,” he lied and she believed him.


	3. Chapter 3

 

Harry couldn’t figure out how he did it or even why, but the bond was active between them. He felt neolithic, a cave person who’d been minding his own business when he was clubbed across the head and dragged into love howling. He couldn’t sort out what was him and what was Cisco. Could he no longer look at him without wanting more than just to look or were those Cisco’s desires? Would it make things any easier either way? There were too many questions and not enough head space to contain them all.

When Jesse figured out that Wally was short for Wallace and not William like the name on her back she broke up with him. Wally was a mess about it and Barry appealed to Cisco one morning armed with donuts.

“These are bribery donuts,” Cisco scowled and took three.

“You spend all day with Harry, can’t you ask him to talk to her, get her to at least hear him out?”

“Dude, on her Earth people don’t ignore the bond without getting ran out of town 1950s interracial marriage style.”

“Okay, but we’re not on her Earth. They love each other and he’s not gonna let it go. The bond nearly ruined my friendship with Iris, Wally deserves the chance to prove himself. If you could go back in time and fall for someone else rather than blindly accept your fate, wouldn’t you?”

It was a cheap shot and they both knew it. Cisco took an angry bite of donut and agreed to ask Harry. Barry sped out, came back with Cisco’s favorite drink from Jitters, set it aside and hugged him so hard they nearly toppled over.

* * *

 

Harry would’ve never agreed to meet Cisco outside of work so instead he showed up on his doorstep as if that made it any better. He tried to talk around it, but one steely look from Harry wrenched the truth out of him.

“She’s her own person, he should know that better than anyone.”

Cisco put his feet up on the couch. “Love makes people cray.”

“Eloquently put. Get your feet off the cushions.”

“I’m not wearing shoes, it’s cool.”

“No it is not _cool_. None of this is cool.”

Harry came over and pushed Cisco’s legs off the couch roughly. As soon as he touched him Harry felt a small twinge then full flame of lust because of course he couldn’t have been Fated to anything, but a male in his twenties who made a habit of hitting on anything with two legs. He took up the spot Cisco’s feet recently occupied and tried to ignore the others feelings building up inside of him as he explained why Jesse was the last person to give up on finding her Fated even if she hadn’t come from an Earth that did everything but outright ban the act. He talked about her relationship with her mother and how it was growing up with Harry who could have chosen to be with another widow without judgement but didn’t. She put him and the bond on a pedestal. As he spoke he pointedly did not look at Cisco, but peripherally he could see the other man nodding while absently licking his lower lip as he stared at Harry.

“People can go their whole lives not meeting their Fated and Wally’s chill, he’d step aside if it happened. Maybe he wants a chance to be with her in case it doesn’t.”

A sound assumption, said nonchalantly, but his mind was obviously elsewhere. Harry finally looked at him.

“You should be talking to her instead of me.”

“I wanted to or Barry asked me.” Cisco brought a pillow onto his lap and rested his elbows on it.

“Which is it you wanted to or Barry asked you to?”

“I don’t know both,” he laughed nervously. Harry’s breathing was getting shallow. Cisco was pressing the pillow tight to his lap, turned on, dwelling on what Harry had said about people who had lost their Fated falling in with each other. He wanted Harry on him, in him, and he wanted it the moment he walked in through the door.

“Bottom line Jesse is my daughter and I am practically your boss. This is inappropriate.”

And, oh god, that only seemed to turn him on more. Harry sighed and placed a hand on the middle of the pillow, pushing it tighter onto his lap.

“Cisco,” he pushed it and the other man gasped quietly, “what are you doing here?”

“Fuck,” red was blooming in his cheeks.

“You’re making things hard on yourself, that’s what you’re doing.” He continued to move the pillow back and forth. “Go home, take a long shower and stop wasting time on this when we have real work to do. Understood?"

Cisco came, his body shuddered, and Harry’s vision blurred as it strummed through him as well but otherwise he remained still until Cisco whispered ‘fuck’ again and scurried off the couch, into his shoes and out the door without another word.

* * *

 

It was downright masochistic. Whatever Cisco had done had resulted in a one sided bond. Harry could feel all of him all the time, but even when Harry provoked himself into a blind rage Cisco didn’t react in the slightest. It would be easy if he could ask Cisco what he’d done, but that would mean unraveling the lie of Harry’s life. It would mean admitting that for all Harry had crowed on his own Earth about choice and shaping his own destiny the bond was not an aberration, but the natural order. It demanded to be felt.

He still looked for another way. It was harder since he’d failed to control himself and Cisco knew that even if Harry didn’t want to be with him he was at the very least attracted to him. For Cisco it was easy. He could openly pursue Harry without any expectations, unaware of the truth, but for Harry it was purgatory. He had to grapple not just with Cisco’s desires, but his own and when Cisco left he felt the absence like a hole in his side.

Work helped.

They finally perfected the Bug and even Joe was enamored with it. When Caitlin surprised them with a visit Cisco showed her footage of it in action.

“It learns quick. Harry do the AI?” Cisco shook his head. They’d traded off when it looked like Harry had more expertise in perfecting the core. “Do you see that?” She ran the video back. “I thought Barry only caught one of them.”

“I did.” Harry and Barry edged behind Cisco and Caitlin. She pointed to the limp hand just out of view of the camera, red pooling in the palm. Barry frowned remembering that the initial reports did say that there was a human and meta working together. He’d sent Bug to look for the meta while he’d run the human to the station, but no one else was found in the building according to Bug.

“According to Bug,” Caitlin repeated. “Cisco you didn’t sample Gideon’s AI, did you?”

“Just for the navigation. She knows the future, I thought it might come in handy.”

“She was also programmed by future Barry with a distinct personality.”

Barry bit his thumb. “Personality is a result of the matrix designed to keep it in check. Bug was supposed to be a glorified toolkit, we didn’t see the point in tinkering with the interface.”

Caitlin zoomed in so they could see a metal claw dragging the body fully from view.

“Maybe you should.”

* * *

 

If the situation wasn’t so dire Harry would’ve gloated. It wasn’t the over abundance, but rather the lack of intelligence that resulted in the rogue AI. Equipped with an indeterminate amount of weapons and supplies Bug was doing its job and helping the Flash rid the city of metahumans by any means necessary. It was too stupid to be fed a paradox and too smart to be caught. They chased it around the city for days until Harry managed to hack Gideon’s personality matrix for Jesse to upload into the bug while Barry distracted it.

They ended the night at an outdoor festival to blow off steam. Cisco found his way to Harry and started to admit that he was wrong, but was waved off. In the distance Wally and Jesse were having the sort of quiet argument that made Harry remember how much of a person she was. A real adult person who could probably deal with unfortunate truths and learn something from it.

He kissed Cisco in the dark behind a photo booth. No lead up or explanation. One moment they were making small talk about music and the next Harry had him up against the metal, touching him in the way he knew Cisco had wanted for a while. It was painful how easy it was. Everything coming in, but nothing was going out. Cisco smiled into the kiss, feeling only his own satisfaction. Maybe it was better that way. He was trailing his mouth down Cisco’s neck when he felt a tug in his back pocket. Cisco brought the star labs pass card to his eyes.

“I didn’t know we made you one.”

“You didn’t. I took it from the other Wells.”

“Screw that,” Cisco pulled back, “we’ll make you another one.”

Two things happened then.

The pass-card that Eobard used to channel an existing bond also served to stifle the energy of the one that wore it. Eobard’s Fated was a speedster as well so if it wasn’t stifled they would’ve felt his absence and suffered. When it was torn it stopped stifling Harry’s energy.

Harry realized it the moment he saw the look on Cisco’s face and the first thing he felt ( and by extension what Cisco felt) was shame.

“Take off your shirt.”

“Let me explain.”

“Take off your shirt!”

Harry did as he was told, turning around and getting shoved for his obedience.

“How long have you known? How long have you felt me in you?”

“I found out that day at the lake.”

“Six months ago. That’s why you left.”

“I didn’t want to hurt you.” He pulled his shirt back on and tried to pull the other closer but Cisco pushed his hands away, walking backwards. “I wasn’t sure.”

“And when you were sure? You let me think that my Fated was dead knowing you were him? Knowing what I went through? I bonded with some Wells who wouldn’t even look me in the eye as he-” Cisco shook his head. “Forget it. I’ll see you around, Harry.”

He opened a portal and disappeared into it before Harry could chase after.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear there's a happy ending to this.


	4. Chapter 4

 

Cisco stepped out of the portal and into a verse where there was no such thing as soulmates. The name on his back throbbed and for a couple of horrific moments he felt Harry’s pain, but it was cut off mid sob replaced only with the coldness of Cisco’s mood. It was strange how fundamentally different this world was and yet how ordinary it looked. Cars honked at each other in traffic, stray cats meowed and hissed from the alley and the smell of a nearby food truck wafted heavy through the air as people debated whether or not to head home instead for dinner.

He stalked his doppelganger for something to do. Earth 60's Francisco Ramon went by Frank and worked at a Star Labs that never made a particle accelerator and hence never had to live through an explosion. Harrison Wells was a professor at the university and Frank was in the middle of telling him that he’d harbored a crush on him the entire semester and that was why he’d transferred out. Professor Wells began to ramble like Cisco had never seen a Wells do before. Apparently this one never developed the quiet cool gene like the others and this Francisco had turned inward instead of out, arrogant and a little full of himself.

“Honestly you were my best student.”

“Maybe it’s time I taught you a thing or two now.”

Cisco groaned wondering if he always sounded that lame when he flirted. The professor was a sap though and fell for it. Cisco ducked out of the bar before they kissed. Without the bond distracting him, telling him what to want, Cisco realized that he did love Harry. The guy who was messed up, but Cisco wasn’t exactly the poster child for well adjusted either. Whatever reasons he had didn’t come from wanting to hurt Cisco. He’d been raised to believe that the bond was about trusting the universe to be right, being vulnerable and open to the blessing of sharing your soul with another person. He still believed that, but choosing to believe it sat better with him.

* * *

 

A year passed. Cisco forgot that it wasn’t only materials that could unfold differently, but the structure of space and time itself. The Earth he’d visited moved slower than his own. When he stepped out of the portal the heartache nearly made him double over. He opened another and deposited himself in front of Harry who was at the lab bent over Barry’s suit. All that pain and yet the moment he laid eyes on Cisco it morphed seamlessly into relief.

“I thought you were dead.”

“I went to an Earth where there’s no such thing as Fated.”

“Once,” Harry said while moving closer to him, “I would’ve been jealous.”

“If the only reason you’re feeling what you’re feeling right now is because you’ve given in to the bond then I can take you to that Earth.”

“I know,” he grabbed Cisco by the back of the neck and Cisco let himself be pulled in. “I love you and if this is the only way I can love you then so be it.”

It wasn’t the stuff out of romance novels and it wasn’t how Cisco imagined falling in love with his soulmate, but it was the truth and in the end that was all he ever wanted.


End file.
